Tuesday, September 23, 2014

SoLSC Why is the best PD in your PJs? 9.23.14


 

Slice of Life is a weekly event hosted by Two Writing Teachers.

This past weekend I sat down to participate in The Educator Collaborative Gathering.  Completely free for educators, as a gift from The Ed Collab, it was a day promising to be "PD in your PJ's"!  

What an amazing morning!  How often, in one day, can you say you learned from so many fantastic educators?  Some highlights:
  • reminders from Donalyn Miller about using nonfiction literature.  Not only the importance of it, but how to make it fun and engaging, how to find the right kind of literature that kids want to read.  It reminded me of titles I want to pull out and use with students.
  • Learning from Kathy Collins about how to challenge our youngest readers.  Just because they are learning to read doesn't mean they can't be asked higher level questions and push their thinking!  I love the idea of the talk and think bubbles - perfect for wordless picture books and making illustrations match the text!
  • Two ideas that have been floating around in my head - kidblogs and wonderopolis.  Kristin Ziemke mentioned both of them and reminded me to start using them now!
  • Jennifer Serravallo pushed my thinking about getting kids thinking and assessing them when using whole novels.  So often we see kids who are not able to carry thoughts from the start of a novel to the end and their thinking gets lost.  She discussed 4 fiction strands that you want to make sure kids have a grasp on and can use when reading novels.  Definitely something I want to think further about and figure out how I can implement it at school!
Did you miss this day?  Want to see the sessions?  Visit this link and see the great presentations from all of the sessions.  I know there are more sessions I'm going to watch and revisit the ones I already saw - so many great ideas, need to watch them all again!

Did you watch some sessions?  What did you learn?

5 comments:

  1. I did miss it Michele but Tara Smith was also sharing her enthusiasm for it and I'll be clicking on your link as soon as I finish this comment. Thanks!

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  2. Ugh, I did miss it! I wanted so bad to do it, but I couldn't dedicate the whole day to my couch - as tempting as it was! Thanks for the notes - I'll check out Jennifer Serravallo's session!

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  3. Sigh, I wish I had more time, Michele. Thanks for the link & sorry I missed this amazing time. I was so excited about the Ed Collab when it started, but the start of school pre-empted so much. Thanks too for sharing the highlights!

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  4. So much fun - and such great learning. Best part - it's all archived!

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  5. Sharing your excitement. It was an awesome and powerful experience. I have to admit it was tough to choose though. I am glad I can watch the rest of the workshops too. I shared the link with my colleagues today. What a gift from the Ed Collab team.

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